In response to the globalization and rapid economic growth of China, the Korean economy has transformed itself. A few Korean firms, spearheaded by Samsung Electronics, have successfully driven the economy, even if the Korean economy has difficulty in the ‘nut cracker’ situation.

The success of Samsung Electronics has been attributed to the strategies of ‘selection and concentration,’ ‘successful restructuring following the IMF crisis,’ ‘long-term vision and unprecedented risk-taking strategy,’ ‘speed management,’ ‘world class brain management’ and ‘successful benchmarking of both Japanese and American management,’ among others.

But in regard to Samsung’s strategies, cogent questions need to be examined. For example, would any Korean firm be able to apply the same strategies as used by Samsung Electronics, and produce the same success? No one could confidently say yes to this question.

Samsung Electronics has dramatically achieved a successful transformation between 1987 and 1999. We argue that this is the result of Mr. Lee, Kun Hee (the ex-CEO of amsung Group)’s strategic learning leadership and its resultant paradigm shift, and that this can be applied to the emergence phenomenon of complexity theory that provides the momentum of evolution of the corporate cultural and/or core competence. The paper explores the dynamic process of this phenomenon.